11/06/2020
To be with God, and Jesus Christ, we must be changed. Laying aside, for a moment, the spiritual transformation we have been undergoing throughout our lives of faith, we are meant to be changed physically as well. This bodily change will not be a lifelong process, but occur in an instant, in a moment, and take place when Jesus returns to claim us. Are we prepared for that instant of indestructible foreverness?
“For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”
1 Corinthians 15:53 ESV
This is our victory demonstrated bodily in the flesh. It is for us what the transfiguration was for Christ. Our bodies will glow as His glows, we will be made beautiful as He is now beautiful, and death will no longer threaten us with defeat. Are we ready for that instant release from death when our body and soul appear together as one?
“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.””
1 Corinthians 15:54 ESV
In that instant when we are miraculously transformed into eternal beings, the spiritual and physical will become as one, and the peace of Christ and joy of God will be made inseparable from us. Are we ready to feel the quickening of this incredible mystery as it is revealed to us; not in hope any longer, but in reality?
“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 ESV
So how will we appear in that twinkling of an eye? To understand this we only need to hear what Jesus looked like at the moment of His transfiguration...
“And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.”
Matthew 17:2-3 ESV
In this way we will have received the promised victory over death, whose sting was sin, and be Christlike as heirs and joint heirs with Him. Are we ready to be made the true family of God as brothers and sisters of Christ? Are we ready to glow bright, and radiate in the joy and peace that Jesus died to prepare for us? Does our desire to be with God in eternity eclipse the desire we have to remain in our current bodies and circumstances? Are we ready to take the hand of Jesus in ours and shine bright with Him forevermore?
“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 15:57 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the promise of becoming imperishable and immortal as your Son Jesus is. Thank you Lord for His life, death, and resurrection that made this possible for us. Thank you Holy Father for revealing to us through His transfigured body all that awaits us when He comes for us in the fullness of time. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who promises us life everlasting, and more than this, that we should live our immortal life in your presence throughout eternity. You are merciful Father for making our redemption possible through Jesus, and full of grace for making us to be like Him when our salvation is complete. Hear our prayers as we long for His return, and the change that awaits us bodily, in that instant. We praise you Father, and look forward to that moment of realized grace when we will be united, and welcomed eternally into your house as your immortal children.
Rich Forbes